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THE FALLACY OF THE 

GERMAN 
STATE PHILOSOPHY 

Br 
DR. GEORGE W. CRILE 




Class 

Book. 



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COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



THE FALLACY OF THE GERMAN 
STATE PHILOSOPHY 



BY THE SAME AUTHOR 

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THE FALLACY 

OF THE 

GERMAN STATE 
PHILOSOPHY 

BY 
GEORGE W. CRILE 




Garden City New York 

DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY 

1918 






Copyright, 1918, by 
DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY 

All rights reserved, including that of 

translation into foreign languages, 

including the Scandinavian 



MAR 2 1918 
©CI.A492428 



To 
Sir Berkeley Moynihan 



THE FALLACY OF 

THE GERMAN STATE 

PHILOSOPHY 

We are in war, but war is only a 
part of what we are in; we are in a 
revolution of the moral, social, 
educational, and political systems 
of the great human race. War is 
the expression of but one phase of 
this fateful revolution. If we are 
to survive and remain free, we 
must accurately value our own 
creed and the creed of our enemy, 
to the end that we may strengthen 
the foundation and augment the 
superstructure of our civilization. 

3 



4 FALLACY OF 

Our enemy is guided by a de- 
finite and a published philosophy. 
We must therefore establish and 
publish our own philosophy. 
We must examine the validity of 
the principles for which we are 
contending, as well as of those 
against which we are contend- 
ing. We must know the truth — 
are we right, or is our enemy 
right ? Is there a flaw in the 
premises of the German State 
philosophy? 

Through the schools and through 
the universities the ideas of the 
German philosophers, of Nietzsche 
and of Treitschke, in particular, 
have created a state of mind 
peculiar to Germany. This state 
of mind, in which religious elements 
are combined with biologic con- 



GERMAN PHILOSOPHY 5 

cepts, is the result, in part, of the 
implantation of the seeds of Dar- 
win's theory of the survival of the 
fittest, in the struggle for existence, 
upon the intensely religious Ger- 
man mind. 

The German adaptation of Dar- 
win's conception may be expressed 
as follows : In nature the strongest 
and the most clever species of 
animal is best adapted for existence, 
hence that species survives and its 
competitors perish. German phi- 
losophy assumes that, among the 
peoples of the earth, the Germans, 
collectively and individually, are 
the strongest and the most clever. 
They conclude, therefore, that the 
German people are the fittest to 
survive; and that they, therefore, 
have the right to exercise their 



6 FALLACY OF 

higher survival qualities. In the ex- 
ercise of this right they conclude 
that they are entitled to take from 
other nations, by methods of peace 
or of war, their land, their wealth, 
their very existence itself, since this 
is the logical right of the fittest 
animal engaged in the struggle for 
survival. The German State phi- 
losophy not only assumes the right 
but holds it as a duty to thus 
extend dominion by force over 
other people. Comparing the mi- 
grated German individual with 
individuals of other stock, we hold 
that the efficiency of the German 
State is not the result of any 
superiority of the German stock 
to the Anglo-Saxon or to the 
Latin stock, but that it is due to 
the establishment of an organi- 



GERMAN PHILOSOPHY 7 

zation in which, by a type of 
collective effort, the individual, to 
a greater degree than is true of the 
individual in any other State, 
has given up his initiative — his 
will — to the State, which has been 
governed by an able and an honest 
ruling class. In other words, 
Germany has established what she 
calls a kultur, by means of which 
a superior State has been created 
out of good average human beings. 
Therefore, when the Germans 
speak of their rights as those of 
the fittest, they refer to their 
State rather than to the individuals 
of that State. 

For the purpose of our argu- 
ment, let us accept the German 
premise that, at this period of 
history, the German State is the 



8 FALLACY OF 

most highly efficient — in agricul- 
ture, in manufacture, in learning, 
in art, in science, and in war. 
Now, if in the last analysis might 
does give right, do the inexorable 
laws of evolution apply to human 
beings as they apply to lower 
animals and plants ? Is force right ? 
Nothing but force gives the 
wolf the right to the life of the 
sheep; nothing but force gives the 
sheep the right to the grass; 
nothing but force gives the grass 
the right to the soil. On the basis 
of evolution alone, what gives 
man the right to take the milk 
from the cow or the wool from the 
sheep? What gives man the right 
to enslave animals; to kill millions 
of animals without their consent — 
,not for their good, but for the 



GERMAN PHILOSOPHY 9 

good of man? What gives man 
the right to occupy the earth so 
completely to the disadvantage 
of many other worthy animals? 
Force and the ability to use that 
force to the advantage of man — 
that is, the exercise of man's 
qualities of fitness — man's adapt- 
ability. What gave our fore- 
fathers the right to dispossess the 
American Indian of a continent, 
not for the good of the Indians, 
but for the good of our ancestors; 
not at the request nor with the 
consent of the Indian, but by the 
exercise, on the part of our ancest- 
ors, of greater fitness to survive? 
Within the period of history we 
have seen weaker races yield to 
stronger, fitter races. There is 
evidence that this occurred even 



10 FALLACY OF 

more strikingly in prehistoric ages. 

Does it, then, follow that the 
German State is justified in exer- 
cising its superior fitness for sur- 
vival against its less fit neighbour- 
ing States? The German premise 
is this — Germany has established 
the fittest State for survival; Ger- 
many, therefore, has the right to 
exercise her survival faculties. 

If this premise can be proved, 
then Germany is right; and this 
premise will be proved to be either 
true or false. It will be proved, 
not by theoretic considerations, 
but by the verdict of the present 
struggle. If the German wins 
permanently, then his premise be- 
comes an established fact, and the 
German philosophers are right. 
The German supremacy would 



GERMAN PHILOSOPHY 11 

then be established, just as one 
species of plants or animals estab- 
lishes its supremacy over another 
species when it migrates into the 
territory of the other. Evolution 
has always declared the victor to 
be right, and the present status of 
the numerous plants and animals 
that now occupy the earth is 
right, because of the exercise of 
their superior fitness to survive. 

In the German premise, might 
is synonymous with fitness to 
survive. It is the fittest that 
survives, and it is true in nature 
that, in most instances, the fittest 
are mightiest. This is true of most 
plants, of most trees; it is true of 
most animals. But it is equally 
true that some of the mightiest 
animals have proved less fit in the 



12 FALLACY OF 

struggle than their competitors 
with other qualities. Even among 
the lower animals might does not 
always win. 

The German philosopher, how- 
ever, may say that intellectual 
might is as important as muscular 
might. This is true, and if Ger- 
many loses the present struggle 
it will not be because of a lack of 
physical or intellectual force or for 
want of cooperation or sacrifice 
on the part of her people, but for 
another reason equally potent and 
based on the same biologic 
principle. 

Let us recall the qualities that 
have enabled man to struggle 
successfully with other competing 
species. Compared with the ani- 
mals over whom he has estab- 



GERMAN PHILOSOPHY IS 

lished his supremacy, man is not 
so strong, he is not so fleet, he is 
not so prolific, he is not so well 
equipped with means of defence 
or with means of offence. Com- 
pared with certain of these animals 
he is inferior in muscular power, 
in the sense of smell, of hearing, 
of sight, of touch, and in his 
means of protection against cold 
and heat and rain. He is less 
protected against disease and he 
is shorter-lived. Man has no pro- 
tecting carapace. He has no re- 
pellent odour. He has no sharp 
claws and no powerful teeth. He 
climbs a tree awkwardly. He is 
timid in water. In each of his 
several physical qualities he is 
outclassed by many animals. 
If survival depended only upon 



14 FALLACY OF 

physical might, a band of powerful 
gorillas would prevail over any 
band of men, just as the keen 
senses, the powerful limbs, the 
prowess of the lion have made him 
the ruler over less powerfully 
equipped animals. 

As the fierce struggles during 
the evolution of animals progres- 
sed, man rose rapidly through the 
development of his master organ 
of strategy — the brain — and the 
evolution of his hands. In his 
brain was found the efficient sub- 
stitute for teeth and claws, for 
fleetness and for keen senses. 

In time, the caveman, the bush- 
man, and the tribe developed. 

Up to this point there is no 
flaw in the German logic, for, up 
to this point the mightiest family 



GERMAN PHILOSOPHY 15 

and the mightiest tribe were right. 
These primitive ancestors, how- 
ever, were able to dominate but 
a limited environment; they barely 
held their own against many com- 
peting animals. In time certain 
momentous developments in the 
vast history of man occurred, viz. : 
the discovery and control of fire, 
the cultivation of useful plants, 
the domestication of animals, the 
manufacture of simple tools. With 
these advances there developed an 
increasingly rapid control over the 
forces of nature and the human 
race began to multiply more 
rapidly. Instead of running away 
or fighting with his muscles, man 
learned more and more how to 
circumvent his enemies. One after 
another, useful additions were 



16 FALLACY OF 

made to man's reactions, which, 
in turn, were augmented by his 
children. 

As the means of controlling the 
forces of nature increased in num- 
ber and as handicrafts and ma- 
chinery became more numerous 
and more nearly complete, as the 
work of man became more special- 
ized and his needs more complex, 
he became increasingly dependent 
upon his fellows. Gradually there 
developed the most dominating of 
all the adaptations of man — the 
community adaptation — com- 
munity behaviour. The primary 
community reaction is cooperation 
through the division of labour with 
the exchange of the products of 
labour. This was the origin of 
justice. There could arise no code 



GERMAN PHILOSOPHY 17 

of laws among naked fruit-eating 
natives. With the railways and 
the telegraph, with the unfolding 
of physics and chemistry, with dis- 
covery and invention, man became 
increasingly dependent upon his 
fellow-man, and the principles of 
justice and of mutual dependence 
became correspondingly intensi- 
fied. 

Thus it came to pass that those 
people were fittest who became 
the most completely adapted to 
gregarious life, viz.: those who 
were most truthful and honest, 
just and diligent. 

Primitive individualistic reac- 
tion, nevertheless, as against com- 
munity reaction, still appeared; in 
fact, it appears frequently even 
now. This is the origin of selfish- 



18 FALLACY OF 

ness, of stealing, of killing, etc. 
The community punished the in- 
dividualistic — the selfish reac- 
tions through cooperation, just 
as the community secures a living 
through cooperation. 

As an adaptation against the 
strong individualistic selfish re- 
actions, religions have been 
evolved. The great success of the 
teachings of Christ, of Buddha, of 
Mohammed, of all religious leaders, 
is due to the fact that fairness and 
honesty and justice are the founda- 
tions of community prosperity. 
Religions aim to develop altruism 
in their adherents — their duty to 
the race as well as to themselves. 
The greater the extent to which 
a people react to the good of the 
race the fitter are they to survive. 



GERMAN PHILOSOPHY 19 

If an individual unjustly takes 
through stealth or by force what 
belongs to his neighbour, if he slays 
his neighbour, a protective reaction 
is awakened in the community 
against that individual. He is 
isolated from his fellows. He may 
even be killed for the general good, 
because he is unfitted for the com- 
munity stage of evolution. But 
he is fitted for the life of the 
lower animals, the life of primitive 
man. 

The individual who is most fair 
and just, most useful to his race — 
that individual is most fitted to 
survive. The successful domi- 
nance of the earth by man is due 
to the fact that, through experi- 
ence, through religion, through 
training by parents and fellow- 



20 FALLACY OF 

men, the majority of human beings 
strive to make the race better and 
to strengthen the bonds of social 
cohesion, or at least they do not 
strive to destroy social cohesion. 

If nations are only multiples of 
individuals, if what is true of the 
individual is true of the nation, 
then we may find in this a possible 
flaw in the premises of the German 
State philosophy. If the same 
standard is applied to the State 
as to the individual, then Germany 
is less fit to survive than many 
other nations, because she has 
returned to the individualism of 
the lower animals and primitive 
man, reacting among the nations 
as the individual robber and the 
individual murderer reacts within 
a nation. Therefore, she awakens 



GERMAN PHILOSOPHY 21 

a protective reaction in other na- 
tions. Other nations must deal 
with her as a nation as they deal 
with individual robbers and mur- 
derers. 

This individualistic German re- 
action interferes with the progress 
of the human race just as the 
robber and the murderer interfere 
with local progress within the 
State. The individual is punished 
so that his neighbour may live. 
Unfit Germany must be punished 
so that the human race may live; 
that, through altruism, it may 
maintain and increase its fitness 
to occupy the earth. 

Now that Germany has put its 
State philosophy in the crucible, 
she finds that the world is against 
her. The nations are opposed to 



22 FALLACY OF 

Germany for the same reason 
that the individuals of a com- 
munity are opposed to a robber 
and a murderer. Germany is 
attempting to impose upon the 
world by force an altruism, for 
herself alone, based on force, 
against an altruism, for the entire 
human race, based on simple jus- 
tice. These two contradictory 
principles are contending for sur- 
vival. If Germany achieves her 
aim — that is, if Germany con- 
quers the world — then Germany's 
philosophy of force will be imposed 
upon the world. The men, the 
women, and the children of the 
world will then be governed by 
the State philosophy that one 
nation should prosper by the labour 
of the people of another nation; 



GERMAN PHILOSOPHY 23 

they will be governed by the 
belief that this State, highly 
adapted to conquer others by force, 
should exercise that force to the 
advantage of themselves alone. 
They are the wolves — we the sheep. 

If the German philosophy should 
prevail, and, after the world had 
become deluged in blood, broken, 
and impoverished, we should 
awake to find ourselves a part of 
such a State, what would happen? 

First, there would be no alien 
peoples, hence there would be no 
States left to plunder. Germany's 
Kultur would then be obliged to 
earn its own living. Her State 
philosophy would then meet its 
first fallacy. 

Again, when Germany had im- 
posed her will upon the world, 



24 FALLACY OF 

when she had achieved her super- 
Arniageddon, when she had 
crushed to earth all opposition, 
then she would find herself without 
foes, without rivals. Without dan- 
gerous rivals the people of the 
State do not give up their will to 
the State. A military autocracy 
can be achieved only in the face 
of danger. Should Germany con- 
quer all her enemies, she would 
no less completely conquer the 
source of her own autocratic power. 
She would then be in the position 
of a cancer that had killed the body 
on which it fed. In what state, 
then, would the world find itself? 
To what previous cycle of history 
would this correspond? Force is 
not the source of State power that 
can endure; it is raised only to fall. 



GERMAN PHILOSOPHY 25 

Even if Germany should conquer 
the world by force, even then 
she would not have proved her 
philosophy to be right, for the com- 
plete control of the individual of 
the State is made possible only by 
the presence of powerful neighbours 
or of neighbours who are feared by 
all the people of a State. In order 
to secure safety the individual 
gives himself to the State. It is 
only a normally weaker State that 
fears its neighbours; therefore, a 
Kultur such as the German Kultur 
can arise only in a State weaker 
in resources and in numbers of 
inhabitants than its rivals. The 
lesser State then strives for its 
permanent safety by destroying 
and by conquering its neighbour. 
When attacked by the highly 



26 FALLACY OF 

organized State, the larger but 
inefficiently organized State is then 
subjected to the same stimulus to 
development. The unorganized 
people then become stronger. The 
Kultur State can grow no stronger; 
hence, sooner or later, there will 
tend to be a balance of power 
established in favour of the larger 
State. 

We must conclude, therefore, 
that the German philosophers have 
been reasoning from false premises. 
This conclusion is supported not 
only by the tenets of religion and 
biology, but by history and by an 
examination of the sources of na- 
tional strength — the fitness of other 
nations. History tells us that 
attempts to rule by force as against 
justice have always failed, either 



GERMAN PHILOSOPHY 27 

by awakening the self-protective 
reactions in many contemporary 
powerful nations, or when a people 
have been brutalized into sub- 
mission by the degeneration of 
both the conqueror and the con- 
quered. It will follow that whether 
the German State wins or loses 
this war, it stands to lose ulti- 
mately. 

The ephemeral success of State 
power based on the supreme right 
of the State contrasted with the 
lasting success of moral power 
based on the rights of the in- 
dividual, as exemplified by the 
long reign of religions and of 
moral codes, is one of the out- 
standing facts of history. The 
greatest source of power is that 
which comes spontaneously and 



28 FALLACY OF 

justly from the individual; that 
which requires a minimum of State 
power for its mobilization. The 
least source of power is that which 
is compelled by the State, because 
from the power of the individual 
must be subtracted the effort of 
the State to extract that power. 
The net result, therefore, is less 
under coercion than under volun- 
tary performance. 

Viewed in this light, one may 
readily understand why the State 
philosophy of Germany has failed 
as a colonizer and why, with their 
opposing individualistic philos- 
ophy, the liberal powers succeed 
as colonizers. Formal submission 
may be compelled, but the seeds 
of discord grow in the damp 
shade of hate. 



GERMAN PHILOSOPHY c 29 

A short cycle of success with 
maximum unhappiness may be 
achieved by a State through the 
exercise of sheer force. The longer 
cycles of success with the maximum 
of happiness have been and prob- 
ably will be secured bv a State 
through the philosophy of the 
individual as expressed by religion 
and by moral codes. If the Allies 
fail in the history of to-day they 
will succeed in the history of to- 
morrow. If Germany succeeds in 
the history of to-day, Germany 
will fail in the history of to- 
morrow. Rather than share the 
common fate of passing through 
a stunting cycle of disintegration 
following a present German suc- 
cess, it were better that we all now 
perish gloriously on the battlefield. 



30 FALLACY OP 

In spite of the fallacy of the 
German philosophers, they have, 
nevertheless, established in the 
German people action patterns of 
such surpassing strength that the 
organized intelligence of the Ger- 
man people is our greatest menace. 
In fact, the present war is a con- 
test of ideas rather than of men. 
In its broadest sense, it is the 
practical application of physics, 
chemistry, and biology in a 
mass struggle for the existence of 
nations. 

The battle itself is the applied 
science of killing; survival is the 
result of knowledge supplied by a 
nation. Therefore it would appear 
that those who plan methods of 
destruction through the use of 
physical and chemical forces will 



GERMAN PHILOSOPHY 31 

profit by the viewpoint of those 
who have special knowledge of the 
effects of those forces on man and 
other animals, viz.: men with an 
expert working knowledge of phys- 
ics, chemistry, and biology. 

Research and medicine and biol- 
ogy should not be limited to 
saving and repairing the wreckage, 
but should be directed also toward 
methods of killing the enemy. To 
accomplish these ends a cohesion 
of scientific talents is essential. 
It is because Germany has so long 
commandeered the talents of her 
universities and the intellect of 
her nation and provided the best 
intellects of her nation with every 
facility and a forced draft to pro- 
duce ideas that the menace of Ger- 
many is her organized intelligence. 



32 GERMAN PHILOSOPHY 

If we expect to win we too must 
meet discovery with discovery; we 
too must meet loss with greater 
sacrifice; we too must concentrate 
our business talent, our engineering 
talent, our medical talent — all our 
talents on our intellectual battle 
line. Our universities and our 
laboratories must become our first- 
line trenches. Our universities 
must constitute the foundation 
of our national defense — our 
schools must become the expo- 
nents of our creed of liberty. 




THE COUNTRY LIFE PRESS 
GARDEN CITY, N. Y. 



